What Chelsea can do to 'convince' Celtic ace to make transfer move as Dermot Desmond claim made amid rival bid

Chelsea reportedly have to make Matt O’Riley sure he will form part of their first team plans if he is to swap Celtic for London.

The race for the talented playmaker is heating up and his dazzling display in a 4-0 win over Kilmarnock on Sunday will only heighten interest. Serie A side Atalanta have had bids knocked back already this summer and Russell Martin wants him in at Southampton.

Premier League side Brighton, however, are making a move for the Danish international. Alan Nixon claims that the Seagulls are ‘now close to hitting a figure that the Glasgow giants accept.’ They have been on his case since May with a £25m plus extras offer ready to be launched.

Chelsea have also expressed their interest in O’Riley but for the midfielder to see them as a viable option, the Blues must ‘convince’ him that he will start under Enzo Maresca. They are set to sell midfielder Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid, a side who had bids rejected for the Celtic ace in January.

Southampton have gone in with an offer of around £18m plus extras with the transfer being worked on at an ‘owner to owner’ level, which suggests Parkhead owner Dermot Desmond is involved in deal discussions. Southampton’s majority shareholder is Sport Republic, a London-based sports investment firm founded by Rasmus Ankersen and Henrik Kraft, financed by lead investor Dragan Solak.

O’Riley joined Celtic in 2022 from MK Dons and is set to make his current club a tidy profit if a bid is accepted. The £25m mark is roughly what convinced the Premiership champions to part ways with Jota in 2023 as he joined Al Ittihad, having welcomed a similar monetary bid from Arsenal for Kieran Tierney four years prior.